Edgar Allan Poe — “The City in the Sea”

Reading copy:

• “The City in the Sea” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Doomed City” — 1831 — [There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.]
• Text-02 — “The Doomed City” — 1831
  • Text-02a — “The Doomed City” — 1831 — [This entry is a speculated faircopy manuscript Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is presumably reflected in Text-02b.]
  • Text-02b — “The Doomed City” — 1831 — POEMS — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The City of Sin” — before August 1836
  • Text-03a — “The City of Sin” — before August 1836 — [This entry is a speculated new manuscript prepared for publication in the Southern Literary Messenger. This manuscript has apparently not survived, but the text has presumably been preserved in Text-03b. Poe had apparently not kept a copy of the 1831 POEMS. He at least did not have one by July 2, 1844, when he wrote to J. R. Lowell asserting that he had “been so negligent as not to preserve copies of any of my volumes of poems — nor was either worthy preservation.” Poe may still have had a copy of POEMS in 1836, or he had a manuscript on which to base his new draft for the poem.]
  • Text-03b — “The City of Sin” — August 1836 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “The City in the Sea” — before April 1845
  • Text-04a — “The City in the Sea” — before April 1845 — [This entry is a speculated new manuscript prepared for publication in the American Review. This manuscript has apparently not survived, but the text has presumably been preserved in Text-04b. Cullen B. Colton states that the manuscript was among those “either lost or stolen.” No trace of a manuscript is known, but it was common practice for such material to be destroyed during or after typesetting. Poe himself saw no particular importance in his manuscript once that version was set in type. The future value of these manuscripts was, of course, not recognized at the time.]
  • Text-04b — “The City in the Sea” — April 1845 — American Review — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-05 — “The City in the Sea” — before August 30, 1845
  • Text-05a — “The City in the Sea” — before August 30, 1845 — [This entry is a speculated copy of the American Review with manuscript revisions. This manuscript has apparently not survived, but the text has presumably been preserved in Text-05b.]
  • Text-05b — “The City in the Sea” — August 30, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text D)
  • Text-05c — “The City in the Sea” — 1845 — RAOP — (Mabbott text E) — [Poe essentially reprinted Text-05b. For Griswold's two reprintings of this text, see PPA and WORKS, under reprints, below.]
  • Text-05d — “The City in the Sea” — 1845-1849 — manuscript revisions in “J. Lorimer Graham” copy of RAOP — (Mabbott text F) — [Poe made only one small change in punctuation.]

Reprints:

• “[The Doomed City]” — May 7, 1831 — New-York Mirror  (reprint of excerpts from Poems in a short review)
• “The City of Sin” — September 17, 1836 — Catholic Advocate (Bardstown, KY), vol. I, no. 32, p. 1  (reprint from SLM)
• “The City in the Sea” — late 1849 — Poets and Poetry of America (10th edition, dated 1850) — (Mabbott text G) (As for WORKS Griswold reprints the text from Text-05c, but applying Poe's punctuation change from Text-05d.)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1850 — WORKS —(Mabbott text H — This is Mabbott's copytext for the final version) — (Griswold reprints Text-05c, from the stereotype plates, again applying Poe's punctuation change from Text-05d.)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time, published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second series), second series pp. 244-245. (with no woodcut illustration) (this poem was omitted in some later printings)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:54-56)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1883 — Surf and Wave, or, the Sea as Sung, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co. (this poem is one of two by Poe included in this collection, the other being “Annabel Lee”)
• “The City in the Sea” — January 15, 1904 — Nashville American (Nashville, TN), vol. XXVII, whole no. 9758, p. 4, bottom of col. 6 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe,” under the general heading of “Poems Worth Knowing.”)
• “The City in the Sea” — January 11, 1905 — Our Mountain Home (Talladega, AL), vol. 38, no. 2, p. 3, across cols. 5-6 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allan Poe,” under the general heading of “A Poem for Today.”)
• “The City in the Sea” — January 13, 1905 — Tri City Star (Davenport, IO), p. 4, spread across cols. 1-2
• “The City in the Sea” — June 23, 1905 — The Comet (Courtland, KS), vol. III, whole no. 122, p. 3, spread across cols. 6-7
• “The City in the Sea” — March 19, 1909 — San Jose Mercury (p. 2) (this item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 161.)
• “The City in the Sea” — March 21, 1922 — Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), vol. XXV, no. 38, p. 3, col. 1 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe”)
• “The City in the Sea” — April 9, 1922 — Kansas City Kansan (Kansas City, KS), vol. XXVI, no. 279, p. 14, col. 4 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allan Poe”)
• “The City in the Sea” — October 19, 1923 — Alexandria Times-Tribune (Alexandria, IN), p. 2, col. 2 (without acknowledgment of source or author)
• “The City in the Sea” — October 20, 1923 — Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN), (no volume or issue number), p. 4, cols. 6-7 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allan Poe”) (the text of the poem is set in italics)
• “The City in the Sea” — October 30, 1923 — Houston Post (Houston, TX), vol. 39, no. 209, p. 6, col. 5 (acknowledged as “Edgar Allan Poe”)
• “The City in the Sea” — (1944) — Holland: The Busy Bee (illustrated by Fred Ingram, pseudonym of Fedde Weidema (1915-2000). Designed by S. H. De Roos.) (a special illustrated edition, limited to 500 copies. A note on the final page states that it “has been printed in secret in the office of ‘The Busy Bee’, somewhere in occupied Holland.” It was apparently printed by Jan Hendriks, in Utrecht, Netherlands.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The City in the Sea” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:22-23, and pp. 174-176)  (The full text of “The Doomed City” is given in the notes)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (10:49-50, and 10:175-178)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 29-30, and pp. 218-220)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 59-62, and pp. 207-210)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (pp. 50-51, and pp. 215-218)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:196-204)  (Mabbott give two texts, one for “The Doomed City” and one for “The City in the Sea”)
• “The City in the Sea” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America) (pp. 67-68) (reprints Text-06)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The City in the Sea” — Study Text (RAOP-JLG)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “La Cité dans la mer” — dated 2009, but available in late 2008 — Poèmes d‘Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Publibook (translation by Jean Hautepierre)

• Amacher, Richard E., “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” Explicator, May 1961, vol. 19, item 60
• Baker, Christopher, “Spenser and ‘The City in the Sea’,” Poe Newsletter, December 1972, 5:55
• Baker, Harry T., “Coleridge's Influence on Poe's Poetry,” Modern Language Notes, March 1910, 25:94-99
• Basler, Roy P., “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” Explicator (February 1946, vol. 4, item 30; reprinted in Sex, Symbolism and Psychology, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1948, pp. 192-195
• Belden, Henry M., “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea‘ and Dante's ‘City of Dis’,” American Literature, November 1935, 7:332-334
• C., J. R., “ ‘The City in the Sea’,” Explicator, April 1945, vol. 3.
• Claudel, Alice Moser, “Mystic Symbols in Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” in Papers on Poe: Essays in Honor of John Ward Ostrom, ed. Richard P. Veler,  Springfield, OH: Chantry Music Press at Wittenberg University, 1972
• Clough, Wilson O., “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea‘ Revisited,” in Essays on American Literature in Honor of Jay B. Hubbell, ed. Clarence Gohdes, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967, pp. 77-89.
• Colton, Cullen B., “George Hooker Colton and the Publication of ‘The Raven’,” American Literature, vol. X, no. 3, November 1938, pp. 319-330 (footnote 30 on p. 328 provides the comment about the manuscript)
• Driskell, Daniel, “Lucretius and ‘The City in the Sea’,” Poe Newsletter, December 1972, 5:54-55
• Garrison, Joseph M., Jr., “Poe's ‘City in the Sea’,” Poe Studies, 1989, 22:43-44
• Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
• J., H., “Edgar Allan Poe: An Unnoticed Plagiarism,” Academy, June 25, 1910, 78:612-613
• Keefer, T. Frederick, “ ‘The City in the Sea’: A Reexamination,” College English, March 1964, 25:436-439
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” Explicator, October 1945, vol. 4, item 1.
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.
• Pittman, Diana, “Key to the Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe: ‘The Doomed City’, ‘The City of Sin,‘ and ‘The City in the Sea’,” Southern Literary Messenger, December 1941, 3:549-592 (this is the renewed form of the SLM)
• Pound, Louise, “On Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” American Literature, March 1934, 6:22-27
• Pound, Louise, “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea‘ Again,” American Literature, March 1936, 8:70-71
• Rose, Marilyn, “Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’: A Conjecture,” Emerson Society Quarterly, 1st Quarter 1968, 50:58-59
• Stockton, Eric W., “Celestial Inferno: Poe's ‘The City in the Sea’,” Tennessee Studies in English, 1963, 8:99-106
• Thorpe, Dwayne, “Poe's ‘City in the Sea’: Sources and Interpretation,” American Literature, 1979, 51:394-399